


貼心 | consideration

by virdant



Series: 吃飽了嗎? | Have you eaten your fill? [3]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Communal Eating, Food, Friendship, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Jedi, Jedi Appreciation (Star Wars), Jedi Culture, Jedi Culture Respected, Platonic Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2020-07-21
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:00:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25415821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/virdant/pseuds/virdant
Summary: Obi-Wan returns to the temple after Naboo, with no master, a new padawan, and no appetite. Quinlan shows up: with friends, to make dumplings, to cook, and to eat.
Relationships: Obi-Wan Kenobi & Quinlan Vos, Obi-Wan Kenobi/Quinlan Vos
Series: 吃飽了嗎? | Have you eaten your fill? [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1832875
Comments: 24
Kudos: 291





	貼心 | consideration

**Author's Note:**

  * For [anthropologicalhands](https://archiveofourown.org/users/anthropologicalhands/gifts).



> dedicated to ellie, who said she didn't want a star wars fic because she doesn't know enough about it, but when i insisted, said, "all right, give me dumpling fic." well here is dumpling fic.
> 
> \--
> 
> 貼心: tie-xin, consideration, from the characters to stick and heart.

Obi-Wan has only just gotten Anakin settled in their quarters when Quinlan breaks in. He has a quarter-second of panic at the sound of the door opening before he realizes who it is, that he’s in the temple, that he’s safe.

Quinlan, to his credit, does not comment on Obi-Wan’s flinch towards the lightsaber on his belt. He instead looks at Obi-Wan and asks, “Have you eaten yet?”

Obi-Wan hasn’t been hungry since Qui-Gon died. Every bite tastes like ash in his mouth. He can smell the pyre when he tries to cook. 

He shakes his head.

Quinlan nods, like he expected that answer. He goes into the kitchen and begins to take stock. Obi-Wan doesn’t move from where he’s standing in the middle of the room, his heart still pattering too quickly in his chest. There’s a muffled shout as Quinlan drops a pan on his foot, loud rummaging through the shelves, and a quiet curse.

Anakin pokes his head out of his room—what was Obi-Wan’s room, before. “What’s going on?”

There is a muttered, “Do you have _anything_ edible in here?” from the kitchen, before Quinlan sticks his head out and says, “Dumplings, tonight?”

Obi-Wan tries to smile at Anakin. “Food,” he says, and for the first time since Qui-Gon’s death, he feels the beginning of hunger as he remembers.

* * *

They are initiates, and Quinlan giggles at another lopsided dumpling.

Obi-Wan’s fingers feel clumsy as he tries to fold another dumpling together. It’s an exercise in patience and dexterity both. His cheeks puff as he tries to make the pleats uniform and neat. 

Luminara is good at folding dumplings. She says it’s because she had a whole extra year of practice. Last year she got to start folding dumplings. Obi-Wan had only been allowed to mix the filling. But this year, Obi-Wan is sitting at the table with the other initiates, helping fold.

Everybody has a different task. The youngest initiates make the dumpling wrapper dough, kneading flour and water and salt together. They pinch off pieces to make little tookas when they get distracted, and the creche masters keep an eye on them to make sure they don’t get too distracted. Other initiates take the dough and roll them out into thin circles to wrap the dumplings with. Bant has been rolling out wrappers for two years already, and she’s one of the best on that task, her wrappers always perfectly round and thin. Older initiates chop meat and vegetables to make the filling, and others mix them together and carry them out to the table for folding.

The creche is full of chatter as they work. The littlest ones giggle as they poke each other with sticky fingers. Reeft and Bant are in friendly competition as they try to roll out wrappers faster than the other—Bant is winning without even trying. Garen has been allowed to help chop vegetables, and he is very careful, his tongue sticking out between his teeth, where he stands with the other older initiates.

Dumpling night is special. Everybody helps. Everybody shares. They make as many as they can. They eat as many as they make. Everybody has their part, and it is because they all do their part that they eat. They do not count how many they fold, do not hoard their work for themselves. Every initiate works for the others. Ever initiate shares in the others’ work.

It is a lesson and a celebration at once.

Quinlan giggles as Obi-Wan finishes another lopsided dumpling.

“Yours aren’t any better,” Obi-Wan protests.

“But yours are still silly looking.”

Obi-Wan bends over a new dumpling. Wrapper on one hand, a pinch of filling in the middle, a swipe of water. He concentrates on making each fold perfect and neat, like Luminara’s. He presses the folds firmly, to keep the dumplings from bursting when they cook.

And, because Quinlan is sitting across from him, Obi-Wan focuses on good feelings. Peaceful ones. He focuses on the joy of a well-folded dumpling instead of the frustration of another mistake. He focuses on challenging himself instead of feeling jealousy over Luminara’s folds. He focuses on how each dumpling will feed one of his friends, one of his family. He focuses on doing his duty and rejoicing in it.

The creche hums with the Light.

* * *

Quinlan leaves for Stores; the kitchen is empty after the long mission to Naboo. He comes back with Luminara and Bant and Garen—Reeft is out on a mission. They fill the rooms with chatter as they set to work unpacking the bags from Stores and doling out responsibilities. Anakin emerges from his room and stares, especially when Aayla shows up with a rolling pin and introduces herself to her fellow padawan.

Obi-Wan sits next to Anakin, Quinlan and Luminara across from them. In the kitchen, Aayla kneads dough and makes little tookas out of the dough. Bant rolls the dough out into dumplings wrappers, perfectly round and thin. Garen chops meat and vegetables and mixes the filling.

Obi-Wan sits next to Anakin. He holds a wrapper in the palm of one hand, pinches filling into the middle. He brushes a fingertip of water along the end to seat the edges, folds the ends together with perfectly uniform pleats.

Anakin’s fingers are clumsy and uncertain. The hands that so easily built machines fumble at making the tiny neat folds. Obi-Wan shows him, again and again. He doesn’t laugh. Instead, he teaches. This is the first lesson he will teach Anakin.

Quinlan and Luminara sit across from them and fold. Because Quinlan is here—not just because Quinlan is here—Obi-Wan focuses on only good feelings as he teaches. He focuses on the joy of his family surrounding him. He mourns his loss and celebrates Anakin’s presence at the same time. He focuses on doing his duty and rejoicing in it.

Quinlan touches a dumpling with a bare finger after Obi-Wan is finished folding it, and smiles.

After a while, Aayla joins them, having kneaded enough dough for the group. Bant and Garen follow soon after, with piles of dumpling wrappers and bowls of filling. They sit and fold, all of them together, even though none of them are initiates anymore. They talk of easy things, of the little tookas that Aayla made instead of kneading, teasing Bant when they find a wrapper slightly lopsided, comparing their pleats to each other.

When there’s only filling left, all of the wrappers used up, Luminara takes the platters of dumplings to the stovetop to cook. She boils them. She pan fries them. She carries them out, one platter after another, and they eat.

They eat as many as they made.

Obi-Wan eats. He does not have Quinlan’s psychometry, but he does not need it. The dough is kneaded the right amount, holding its structure without being too tough. The wrappers were thin and exactly round. The filling is seasoned perfectly. And the dumplings that Quinlan folded, Luminiara, Aayla and Garen and Bant—they are all perfectly held together with precise and uniform folds. Anakin’s dumplings—overfilled, the folds lopsided and uneven—fill his belly with warmth.

He eats until he is full. He eats, and he eats.

This is the first meal after Qui-Gon’s death that he will remember.

Quinlan doesn’t leave until the dishes are washed and put away. He lingers over the platters they filled, over the plates they used and the glasses, brushing them with his bare fingers. He doesn’t share what he gets off of them. 

Quinlan stays until the others leave. He stays until Anakin goes to bed. He stays until the rooms have fallen into silence—heavy and stifling.

He asks, in the silence, “Are you full?”

There is a chasm of grief in him. But Obi-Wan closes his eyes. He can hear Garen’s voice, declaring that Bant has to work faster to keep up with him. He can see Luminara’s perfectly folded dumplings alongside Anakin’s lopsided ones. He can taste Quinlan’s care and concern.

He opens his eyes. “I ate well,” he says, and every word is true.

**Author's Note:**

> i just like writing about food.
> 
> i spent more time trying to come up with a title than writing this fic and finally i decided on 貼心 because the phrase for potsticker is 鍋貼, which shares a character. listen i tried to come up with a pun. sometimes it's hard.
> 
>   
> \--  
> ❤️ Enjoyed it? Try the following options:
> 
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> 


**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Lessons of Peace](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26559805) by [virdant](https://archiveofourown.org/users/virdant/pseuds/virdant)




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